Front fork rebuild
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Road Captain
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 574
Likes: 111
From: New Baltimore, MI
Front fork rebuild
My fork seals are busted, so while I am replacing the seals I am going to freshen up the front end with some progressive springs. I did this before on another bike, but I just took the forks to my Indy and let them do it for a couple of hours of labor. As I am reading the manual, it doesn't seem too bad of a job, and I may try to tackle it on my own. My main question before I begin is what specialty tools will I need? The book calls for the seal driver, and I am guessing I will need the mount to hold the fork for disassembly, other than those 2, am I missing anything?
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 3,596
Likes: 9,899
From: Florida's gorgeous East coast
A piece of PVC pipe for a "Seal Driver tool" works great. Take the time to flush/wipe all the old oil and residue that clings to everything inside after your forks have drained well. Unless you're in a hurry, let'em drain overnight. You'll find recommendation for the amount of new fork oil differ, based upon "wet" or "dry". If you pull them down completely and get everything inside cleaned of residue...use the "dry" recommendation.
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Road Captain
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 574
Likes: 111
From: New Baltimore, MI
Great video, that helped a lot. I do not have an impact gun, I will have to look into borrowing or purchasing one. What is the size of the bolt on the bottom, so I can start looking for that socket? I will clean and drain everything, but I will probably put a set of chrome lowers on while it's apart. Thanks for the advice so far! Ill check back in when I make some progress, and I am in no hurry!
Road Warrior
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,268
Likes: 507
From: Florida
Don't really need an impact gun. The correct allen wrench and a good rap with a dead blow device of your choice. Reassemble same way.
A good vice and appropriate protection on tube when in vice.
Clean all parts with brake cleaner. Cleans metal parts and evaporates so no worries on clinging oil.
A good vice and appropriate protection on tube when in vice.
Clean all parts with brake cleaner. Cleans metal parts and evaporates so no worries on clinging oil.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,620
Likes: 1,090
From: Eastern IA
Great video, that helped a lot. I do not have an impact gun, I will have to look into borrowing or purchasing one. What is the size of the bolt on the bottom, so I can start looking for that socket? I will clean and drain everything, but I will probably put a set of chrome lowers on while it's apart. Thanks for the advice so far! Ill check back in when I make some progress, and I am in no hurry!
Last edited by Stopit; Feb 26, 2023 at 08:37 AM.
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Road Captain
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 574
Likes: 111
From: New Baltimore, MI
Hily crap, whata nightmare under the dash...89 Tour glide, all kinds of stuff going on in there. Looks like a grounding block is built into part of the air suspension, hopefully it just grounds parts of the air ride and I can ditch it. My plan was to eliminate all of the air suspension components in there and just seal it up.
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Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 9,493
Likes: 7,789
From: Long Island, New York
The allen bolt inside the lower leg is METRIC. If you don't own, buy a decent set of long reach metric allen sockets to get the job done.
The impact gun works good, but the FSM tells you to take the fender off before loosening the bolts in the lower legs. I always get the bolts broken loose before fender removal, fender holds the legs from spinning.
I have used the PVC pipe as a seal driver than I found a youtube where a guy uses a bunch of electrical tape, works better and is easier, just you waste some tape. Buy the cheap stuff from harbor Freight and have at it.
The impact gun works good, but the FSM tells you to take the fender off before loosening the bolts in the lower legs. I always get the bolts broken loose before fender removal, fender holds the legs from spinning.
I have used the PVC pipe as a seal driver than I found a youtube where a guy uses a bunch of electrical tape, works better and is easier, just you waste some tape. Buy the cheap stuff from harbor Freight and have at it.
